Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: billdean on April 15, 2017, 09:52:28 pm
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All my equipment is 8 frame mediums. I have been pondering just exactly how I want to split 2 of my booming over wintered hives. I know I would like to maximize the amount of honey for this year. I have been seriously thinking of splitting my hives using a double screen board. The problem I see is finding the queen is 40 or 50,000 bees. Seeing I use 8 frame medium boxes could I not just put the double screen board in the middle of the boxes or just split the hive in half? 2 mediums above the double screen board and 2 below it. This seems a lot easier and less disruptive to the hive. Does it really matter where the queen is in 8 frame medium boxes on a double screen split? In 4 or 5 days it should be obvious which hive has the queen. Is there something I am missing here?
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I don't have any experience with using a double screen board. So, I can't help you there.
The easiest way to split would be just to split it in half(aka a 'walk away' split). You don't have to find the queen as long as you make sure that there are eggs in each half.
A split can be any size you want as long as there are either the queen or eggs and enough bees to raise a queen in each part of the split. If you have 4 boxes of bees you could split boxes 2+2, 3+1, 2+1+1, or 1+1+1+1. The ones without queen will make one.
How you split is determined by what you want to accomplish. Split alot to increase number of hives or just split a little to prevent swarming and produce honey.
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I also don't know about double screen splitting but in my opinion a walk away will not help with honey production.
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I would like to maximize my honey production for sure. That why I have been considering the double screen board or Snelgrove board. I have been reading up about it, but I have not fully understood it yet.